1. In a mixer, grind together coconut, red chillies, bengal gram, shallots and salt adding little water to make a little coarse paste. Add water according to your required consistency and adjust the salt.

2. In a tadka pan, heat oil. Add mustard seeds and red chillies. When crackling add the curry leaves and pour into chutney and stir.

Koorka or Chinese potato are small round tuber "potatoes", that are pleasant in flavor, with a moist and grainy texture mainly used in Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

Cleaning koorka is a laborious task. In olden times, the skin was peeled by putting the koorka in a sack and beating it on the ground till the skin peels off!

How to clean koorka:

Wash the koorka in water numerous times till the dirt and sand is completely gone. Now days we get cleaned koorka but if you got unclean ones, soak in water overnight.

There are 2 ways to remove skin of koorka. Easiest way is cook them in pressure cooker for 1 or 2 whistles or 5 minutes which will make it easier to peel the skin. Peel the skin immediately after removing from cooker and wash well.

Second way is to remove the skin using a knife or peeler, which is bit time consuming. If you do not want to compromise on the taste, you can go for the second method but I being the lazy kind went for the easier option.

After removing the skin wash well and cut the koorka into small cube size pieces. Put koorka in water until they are ready to cook to prevent them from turning brown.

I make chapathi/roti/phulka couple of times a week. My major dilemma is deciding on what curry or side-dish to make. Though there is no scarcity of Indian vegetarian curries and side-dish, the difficulty is in deciding and of course, looking for the most easiest one with the vegetables I have in hand. I have tried writing up meal plans for the whole week, but unfortunately it never worked for me!

Among those hundreds of curries in the Indian cooking repository, one of the most common yet popular curries you will find in India and also in almost all Indian restaurant menu is the classic Punjabi Aloo Gobi. It is a vegetable dish made with potatoes, cauliflower tossed in a mix of Indian spices and herbs. This dry sabzi can be served with roti/chapathi/phulka (whole-meal flatbreads), goes well as a side-dish with rice and dal (lentils) or with any pulao and jeera (cumin ) rice.

Every household will have their own way of making aloo gobi. The authentic Punjabi Aloo is made by sauteing onions and tomatoes along with the spices. Then potatoes and cauliflower are then slow-cooked in the onion-tomato mixture. I find this method little bit time and "oil" consuming!!! Sometimes the vegetables get half-cooked or cauliflower turns into a mush. After several attempts and recipe tweaks, here is my perfected version of aloo gobi.

The one thing I always do is half-cook the potato and cauliflower and fry them slightly in little oil. You can skip this step if you want to reduce the total cooking time but the frying enhances the flavour and retains the shape of the veggies. Tomatoes are one of the key ingredients and I prefer using tomato paste over freshly chopped tomatoes or tomato puree for this dry dish. The spices should not overpower the dish, so add less spices to get the maximum flavour. Cumin (jeera) powder, coriander powder and garam masala are a must and you can add green chillies or red chilli powder according to your spice preference. A big pinch of dried fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi), squeeze of lemon and few sprigs of fresh coriander leaves at the end packs more flavour into this simple vegetable curry.

1. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a kadai. Add the potatoes and the required salt. Close lid and cook the potatoes. Once its cooked, fry the potatoes for 5 minutes. Remove and keep aside.

2. Put the cauliflower florets in boiling water with a pinch of turmeric powder for 5 minutes. Drain and wash the florets in cold water. Add 1 tbsp oil in the same kadai and add the cauliflower florets, salt and fry till its cooked and slightly brown. Remove and keep aside.